Publications

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November 2012
Article

Does Management Really Work?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

HBR's 90th anniversary is a sensible time to revisit a basic question: Are organizations more likely to succeed if they adopt good management practices? The answer may seem obvious to most HBR readers, but these three economists cast their net much wider than that. In... View Details

Keywords: Best Practices; Consulting Firms; Corporations; Cost Control; Employee Training; Executive Ability (Management); Executives—training Of; Hospitals—administration; Industrial Management—research; Productivity Incentives; School Management Teams; Work Environment; Management; Research

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16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

Two dramatically different approaches to organizational change are being employed in the world today, according to our observations, research, and experience. We call these Theory E and Theory O of change. Like all managerial action, these approaches are guided by very... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

February 2010
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Situation Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Before managers can begin to formulate marketing strategies for their businesses, they must have a strong understanding of the internal and external marketing environments in which they are operating. In this note, we present three methods for collecting and analyzing... View Details

Keywords: Five Forces Framework; SWOT Analysis; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Industry Structures; Strategic Planning

Educators

fall 1997
Article

Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do

By: T. M. Amabile

Creativity in all fields, including business, flourishes under intrinsic motivation- the drive to do something because it is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging. This article presents the Componential Theory of Organizational... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Situation or Environment; Organizational Culture

January 1996 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: A Period of Transition

By: David J. Collis and Melinda B. Conrad

Bob Holland takes over as CEO of this iconoclastic ice cream company in February 1995 when it faces a major crisis. Holland must now develop a strategy that both adapts to the external environment and is consistent with the company's unique heritage. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry

Educators

June 2008
Article

'Thar' She Blows: Can Bubbles Be Rekindled with Experienced Subjects?

By: Reshmaan Hussam, David Porter and Vernon Smith

We report 28 new experiment sessions consisting of up to three experience levels to examine the robustness of learning and “error” elimination among participants in a laboratory asset market and its effect on price bubbles. Our answer to the title question is: “yes.”... View Details

Keywords: Experimental Economics; Asset Markets; Bubbles; Price Bubble; Financial Markets

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01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

2017
Working Paper

Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey

By: Georgios Serafeim

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e., not SRI funds) investment organizations, we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. The primary reason... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Sustainability; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Investment Fund; Investment Strategy; Corporate Accountability; Activist Shareholder; Engagement; Environment; Climate Change; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Engagement; Global Warming; Investment; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Expectations

SSRN

January 2019 (Revised December 2020)
Module Note

Market Attractiveness

By: Ashish Nanda

As a strategist, you must understand and calibrate the environment in which your organization operates. How generous or challenging is the environment? What forces drive the munificence or sparseness of your environment? How are those forces changing, and what is their... View Details

Keywords: Market Attractiveness; Markets; Situation or Environment; Strategy

March 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Background Note

Social Media

By: Sunil Gupta, Kristen Amalie Bozzone Armstrong and Zachary Scott Clayton

This note describes the rapidly changing environment of social media and how managers can leverage it. View Details

Keywords: Framework; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Situation or Environment; Social and Collaborative Networks

Educators

09 Sep 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics

Harvard Business School's Business and Environment Initiative (BEI) aim to shift the debate to a practical conversation about business assessment. "It's striking that anyone frames this question in terms of 'belief,' saying things like,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

September 2009
Supplement

Consumer Lending in Japan: Citi CFJ (B)

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull and Akiko Kanno

As the regulatory environment for consumer lending evolves, CFJ has to decide how to respond. View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk Management; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Japan

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

What It Takes: Minorities in the Executive Suite

minority executives we studied didn't wait for their work environment to be perfect," he concludes. "They managed their careers using the strategies we identified. At the same time, the companies they worked for were also... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

22 May 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Componential Theory of Creativity

Keywords: by Teresa M. Amabile

2022
Working Paper

Capitalism and Global Governance in Business History: A Roundtable Discussion

By: Sabine Pitteloud, Grace Ballor, Patricia Clavin, Nicolás M. Perrone, Neil Rollings and Quinn Slobodian

This working paper brings together a diverse group of scholars to discuss the historiography of capitalism, business history and global governance and lay the foundations for further research in this area. Grace Ballor and Sabine Pitteloud open the discussion with a... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Business History; Multinational Corporation; Business And Government Relations; Business And Society; Business And The Environment; International Relations; Regulation; Business Interest Association; Lobbying; Private Governance; State-business Relations; Political Risk; Neo-Liberalism; Governance; Globalized Firms and Management; Government and Politics

SSRN

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20 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How CEOs Sustain Higher-Ambition Goals

environment strategies. They also acknowledged the difficult challenge inherent in balancing the effort needed to achieve these goals with the central need to generate profit. "There's this natural tension," said Douglas Conant, former... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2020
Article

Strategies for Managing the Privacy Landscape

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Andres Hervas-Drane

Firms use consumer personal information to improve their products and services. Personal information is open to misuse, however, and when exploited for undesired or unexpected purposes reduces consumer’s trust in the firm and their willingness to provide personal... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Privacy; Privacy Threats; Strategy Framework; Strategy Interactions; Customers; Information; Management; Strategy; Technology Industry

2011
Casebook

Transnational Management: Text Cases and Readings in Cross Border Management

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Paul W. Beamish

Transnational Management focuses on the management challenges associated with developing strategies and managing the operations of companies whose activities stretch across national boundaries. The purpose of this book is to provide a conceptual framework showing the... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Economy; Framework; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Management; Problems and Challenges; Situation or Environment; Strategy; Competition